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Like so many of us, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the last few weeks wondering how our current devastating health crisis is going to affect our lives going forward.

Our lives and our collective life, together, on this planet.

I just came across an article laying out some of Bill Gate’s thoughts about where we might be heading and it sounded very plausible to me.

I’ve always respected Bill Gates for his obvious business acumen and the visionary way he led Microsoft in its formative period.

And I certainly laud Bill and Melinda for taking a wide world view and for their extraordinary philanthropy.

I think his thoughts about the COVID-19 crisis here deserve a very wide reading and I recommend this article for anyone who’d like to read some cogent and well-informed thoughts on where we might be heading.

One of the projects I’ve wanted to get done — especially while we all have a lot of time on our hands — is to get sourdough starter actually started!

It’s on the counter now and with daily feedings it should be ready to make bread in a week or so. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but beyond that it’s really hard to find yeast in the grocery stores right now.

I will let you know how this project goes. If any of you have made sourdough starter and want to share your tips with me, that would be good thing.

I’m looking forward to actually baking the bread. If I’m doing this right, I should be good to go in the next week or so.

I love to bake and this will be a new wrinkle for me. Getting yeast this way — which is sometimes called “wild” yeast — is a step, I think, in becoming a “real” baker.

Did you know that there was a group of dedicated botanists and nature nuts who spend a lot of time scouring the American northwest looking for lost apples?

Well, I didn’t either!

But there is and I just found out about these folks and the work of the Lost Apple Project by reading an article I found in a friend’s tweet.

It’s by far the most interesting thing I’ve found while web-surfing for quite a while.

It was from reading that article that I learned that North America once had around 17,000 named varieties of apples and that botanists believed that all but around 4,500 had disappeared.

And folks who work with the non-profit Lost Apple Project have been trying to find, identify and preserve as many of those lost varieties as possible.

It came as very welcome news that they’ve had quite a bit of success this year; the article mentioned that they’ve come across at least ten varieties this season that were previously thought to have been lost.

Being the ardent nature-lover that I am, it was such a good thing to hear that the L.A.P. has been very successful of late. You might say that 2020 has been a very fruitful year for the folks at the Project!

The 7th of April is World Health Day each year. It’s always a good time to show appreciation to our health care professionals but it seems all the more appropriate now that COVID-19 is ravaging our world.

Nurses have been there for me in a big way the four times I’ve been hospitalized. One of those involved major surgery and — although that was a very big deal — the care I received from nurses, doctors and techs made a tough situation bearable.

I’m thinking that most of the folks who may read this could say something similar.

I know that many of us have been watching more news than usual while we’re in the middle of this crisis. I certainly have.

There’s no doubt that the healthcare catastrophe the world is facing now generates almost unlimited bad news.

Like so many of us, when I read or hear good news, it’s a real ray of sunshine piercing through what seems like an impenetrably dark cloud.

I read a story yesterday that provided one of those occasional bright moments and I’m passing the story along today. I’m hopeful that it might provide a bit of relief to you while we’re dealing with this dark, unfolding tragedy.

As you most likely know, New York has been hard hit by the coronavirus. New York governor Andrew Cuomo is holding daily press briefings while his state and her medical professionals are straining to deal with the crisis.

He’s repeatedly appealed for more Doctors, Nurses and other professionals in the healthcare field to come to the aid of his beleaguered state.